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<h1>Beautiful, is an Adjective</h1>

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<div class="outline">
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<center><span class="summary">Outline</span></center>
<ol>
<li><a href="#part1">Properties of Adjectives</a></li>
<li><a href="#part2">The na-adjective</a></li>
<li><a href="#part3">The i-adjective</a></li>
<li><a href="#part4">An annoying exception</a></li>
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<h2 id="part1">Properties of Adjectives</h2>
Now that we can connect two nouns together in various ways using particles, we want to describe our nouns with adjectives.  An adjective can
directly modify a noun that immediately follows it.  It can also be connected in the same way we did with nouns using particles.  All adjectives fall
under two categories: na-adjectives and i-adjectives.  We will see how they are different and how to use them in sentences.

<h2 id="part2">The na-adjective</h2>
The na-adjective is very simple to learn because it acts essentially like a noun.  In fact, they are so similar; you can assume that they behave
the same way unless I specifically point out differences.  One main difference is that a na-adjective can directly modify a noun following it by
sticking 「な」 between the adjective and noun.  (Hence the name, na-adjective.)
<p>（１）　<span title="しずか - quiet" class="popup">静か</span><em>な</em><span title="ひと - person" class="popup">人</span>。- Quiet person.</p>
<p>In addition to this direct noun modification which requires a 「な」, you can also say that a noun <i>is</i> an adjective by using the topic or identifier particle in a
<i>[Noun] [Particle] [Adj]</i> sentence structure (for instance
「<span title="ひと - person" class="popup">人</span>は<span title="しずか - quiet" class="popup">静か</span>」）. This is
essentially the same thing as the state-of-being with nouns that we've already covered in the previous two sections.
However, since it doesn't make sense for an adjective to be a noun, you cannot have a <i>[Adj] [Particle] [Noun]</i> sentence structure
（for instance 「<span title="しずか - quiet" class="popup">静か</span>が<span title="ひと - person" class="popup">人</span>」）.
This is pretty obvious because, for instance, while a person can be quiet, it makes no sense for quiet to be a person.
</p>

<p>（１）　<span title="ともだち - friend" class="popup">友達</span>は<span title="しんせつ - kind, friendly" class="popup">親切</span>。- Friend is kind.
</p>

<p>
（２）　<span title="ともだち - friend" class="popup">友達</span>は<span title="しんせつ - kind, friendly" class="popup">親切</span>な<span title="ひと - person" class="popup">人</span>。- Friend is kind person.
</p>

<p>Remember how na-adjectives act almost exactly the same as nouns?  Well, you can see this by the following examples.
</p>

<p>
（１）　ボブは<span title="さかな - fish" class="popup">魚</span>が<em><span title="すき - like" class="popup">好きだ</span></em>。- Bob likes fish.
</p>

<p>
（２）　ボブは<span title="さかな - fish" class="popup">魚</span>が<em><span title="すき - like" class="popup">好きじゃない</span></em>。- Bob does not like fish.
</p>

<p>
（３）　ボブは<span title="さかな - fish" class="popup">魚</span>が<em><span title="すき - like" class="popup">好きだった</span></em>。- Bob liked fish.
</p>

<p>
（４）　ボブは<span title="さかな - fish" class="popup">魚</span>が<em><span title="すき - like" class="popup">好きじゃなかった</span></em>。- Bob did not like fish.
</p>

<p>Do the conjugations look familiar?  They should, if you paid attention to the section about <a href="copula.html#part4">state-of-being</a> conjugations for nouns.
If it bothers you that "like" is an adjective and not a verb in Japanese, you can think of 「<span title="すき - like" class="popup">好き</span>」 as meaning
"desirable". Also, you can see a good example of the
topic and identifier particle working in harmony.  The sentence is about the topic "Bob" and "fish" identifies specifically what Bob likes.
</p>

<p>
You can also use the last three conjugations to directly modify the noun.  (Remember to attach 「な」 for positive non-past tense.)
</p>

<p>
（１）　<span title="さかな - fish" class="popup">魚</span>が<em><span title="すき - like" class="popup">好きな</span></em><span title="タイプ - type" class="popup">タイプ</span>。- Type that likes fish.
</p>

<p>
（２）　<span title="さかな - fish" class="popup">魚</span>が<em><span title="すき - like" class="popup">好きじゃない</span></em><span title="タイプ - type" class="popup">タイプ</span>。- Type that does not like fish.
</p>

<p>
（３）　<span title="さかな - fish" class="popup">魚</span>が<em><span title="すき - like" class="popup">好きだった</span></em><span title="タイプ - type" class="popup">タイプ</span>。- Type that liked fish.
</p>

<p>
（４）　<span title="さかな - fish" class="popup">魚</span>が<em><span title="すき - like" class="popup">好きじゃなかった</span></em><span title="タイプ - type" class="popup">タイプ</span>。- Type that did not like fish.
</p>

<p> Here, the entire clause 「<span title="さかな - fish" class="popup">魚</span>が<span title="すき - like" class="popup">好き</span>」、「<span title="さかな - fish" class="popup">魚</span>が<span title="すき - like" class="popup">好きじゃない</span>」、etc. is modifying "type" to
talk about types (of people) that like or dislike fish.
You can see why this type of sentence is useful because 「タイプは<span title="さかな - fish" class="popup">魚</span>が<em><span title="すき - like" class="popup">好きだ</span></em>。」 would mean "The type likes fish", which doesn't make much sense.
</p>
<p>
We can even treat the whole descriptive noun clause as we would a single noun. For instance, we can make the whole clause a topic like the following example.
</p>

<p>
（１）　<em><span title="さかな - fish" class="popup">魚</span>が<span title="すき - like" class="popup">好き</span>じゃない<span title="タイプ - type" class="popup">タイプ</span></em>は、<span title="にく - meat" class="popup">肉</span>が<span title="すき - like" class="popup">好き</span>だ。
<br />- Types (of people) who do not like fish like meat.
</p>

<h2 id="part3">The i-adjective</h2>
The i-adjective is called that because it always ends in the hiragana character 「い」.  This is the okurigana and it is the part that will change as you conjugate the
adjective.  But you may know some na-adjectives that also end in 「い」 such as 「<span title="きれい - neat, pretty" class="popup">きれい</span>（な）」.
So how can you tell the difference?
The bad news is there really is no way to tell for sure. However, the really good news is that I can only think of two examples of na-adjectives that end with 「い」 that is usually written in hiragana:
「<span title="きれい - neat, pretty" class="popup">きれい</span>」 and 「<span title="きらい - distasteful, hateful" class="popup">嫌い</span>」.
All other na-adjectives I can think of that end in 「い」 is usually written in kanji and so you can easily tell that it's not an i-adjective. For instance, in the case of
「<span title="きれい - neat, pretty" class="popup">きれい</span>」, which is 「<span title="きれい - neat, pretty" class="popup">綺麗</span>」 or
「<span title="きれい - neat, pretty" class="popup">奇麗</span>」 in kanji,
since the 「い」 part of 「麗」 is encased in kanji, you know that it can't be an i-adjective. That's because the whole point of the 「い」 in i-adjectives is to allow conjugation
without having it affect the kanji. In fact, 「<span title="きらい - distasteful, hateful" class="popup">嫌い</span>」 is the only na-adjective I can think of that ends in
hiragana 「い」 without a kanji. This has to do with the fact that 「<span title="きらい - distasteful, hateful" class="popup">嫌い</span>」
is actually derived from the verb 「<span title="きらう - to hate" class="popup">嫌う</span>」
<p>Remember how the <a href="copula.html#part2">negative state-of-being</a> for nouns also ended in 「い」 （じゃな<em>い</em>）?
Well, you can treat i-adjectives in the
same fashion as the negative state-of-being for nouns.  And just like the negative state-of-being for nouns, you cannot attach the declarative 「だ」 to i-adjectives
like you can with nouns or na-adjectives.
</p>

<center>
<table class="note">
<tr><td><strong><b>Do NOT attach 「だ」 to i-adjectives.</b></strong></td></tr>
</table>
</center>

<p>Now that we got that matter cleared up, we can learn the conjugation rules for i-adjectives.  There are two new rules for i-adjective conjugations.
To negate or set to past tense, we first drop the 「い」, then add 「くない」 for negation or 「かった」 for past tense.
Since 「くない」 ends in an 「い」, you can also treat the negative just like another i-adjective.
Therefore, the rule for conjugating to negative past tense is the same as the rule for the positive past tense.
</p>

<div class="sumbox">
<span class="summary">Conjugation rules for i-adjectives</span>
<ul class="plain">
<li><b>Negative</b>: First remove the trailing 「い」 from the i-adjective and then attach 「くない」</li>
<li>例）　<span title="たかい - high, tall, expensive" class="popup">高<em><strike>い</strike></em></span> → <span title="たかい - high, tall, expensive" class="popup">高<em>くない</em></span></li>
<li><b>Past-tense</b>: First remove the trailing 「い」 from the i-adjective or negative i-adjective and then attach 「かった」</li>
<li>例）　<span title="たかい - high, tall, expensive" class="popup">高<em><strike>い</strike></em></span> → <span title="たかい - high, tall, expensive" class="popup">高<em>かった</em></span></li>
<li>例）　<span title="たかい - high, tall, expensive" class="popup">高くな<em><strike>い</strike></em></span> → <span title="たかい - high, tall, expensive" class="popup">高くな<em>かった</em></span></li>
</ul>
<center>
<table border="1" cellpadding="5">
<caption>Summary of i-adjectives</caption>
<tr align="center"><th></th><th>Positive</th><th>Negative</th></tr>
<tr align="center"><th>Non-Past</th><td><span title="たかい - high, tall, expensive" class="popup">高い</span></td><td><span title="たかい - high, tall, expensive" class="popup">高くない</span></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><th>Past</th><td><span title="たかい - high, tall, expensive" class="popup">高かった</span></td><td><span title="たかい - high, tall, expensive" class="popup">高くなかった</span></td></tr>
</table>
</center>
</div>

<p>
You can directly modify nouns by just attaching the noun to the adjective.
</p>

<p>
（１）　<em><span title="たかい - high, tall, expensive" class="popup">高い</span></em><span title="ビル - building" class="popup">ビル</span>。- Tall building.
</p>

<p>
（２）　<em><span title="たかい - high, tall, expensive" class="popup">高くない</span></em><span title="ビル - building" class="popup">ビル</span>。- Not tall building.
</p>

<p>
（３）　<em><span title="たかい - high, tall, expensive" class="popup">高かった</span></em><span title="ビル - building" class="popup">ビル</span>。- Building that was tall.
</p>

<p>
（４）　<em><span title="たかい - high, tall, expensive" class="popup">高くなかった</span></em><span title="ビル - building" class="popup">ビル</span>。- Building that was not tall.
</p>

<p>
You can also string multiple adjectives successively in any order in any form.
</p>

<p>
（１）　<em><span title="しずか - quiet" class="popup">静か</span>な<span title="たかい - high, tall, expensive" class="popup">高い</span></em><span title="ビル - building" class="popup">ビル</span>。- A quiet, tall building.
</p>

<p>
（２）　<em><span title="たかい - high, tall, expensive" class="popup">高くない</span><span title="しずか - quiet" class="popup">静か</span>な</em><span title="ビル - building" class="popup">ビル</span>。- A not tall, quiet building.
</p>

<p>
Note that you can make the same type of descriptive noun clause as we have done with na-adjectives. The only difference, of course, is that we don't need 「な」 to directly modify the noun.
In the following example, the descriptive clause 「<span title="ねだん - price" class="popup">値段</span>が<span title="たかい - high, tall, expensive" class="popup">高い</span>」 is directly modifying 「<span title="レストラン - restaraunt" class="popup">レストラン</span>」.
</p>
<p>
（１）　<em><span title="ねだん - price" class="popup">値段</span>が<span title="たかい - high, tall, expensive" class="popup">高い</span><span title="レストラン - restaurant" class="popup">レストラン</span></em>は<span title="あまり - not very" class="popup">あまり</span><span title="すき - like" class="popup">好きじゃない</span>。
<br />- Don't like high price restaurants very much.
</p>

<h2 id="part4">An annoying exception</h2>
There is one i-adjective meaning "good" that acts slightly differently from all other i-adjectives.  This is a classic case of how learning Japanese
is harder for beginners because the most common and useful words also have the most exceptions.  The word for "good" was originally 「よい（<span title="よい - good" class="popup">良い</span>）」.
However, with time, it soon became 「<span title="いい - good" class="popup">いい</span>」.  When it is written in kanji, it is usually read as 「<span title="よい - good" class="popup">よい</span>」 so 「<span title="いい - good" class="popup">いい</span>」 is almost always hiragana.  That's all fine and
good.  Unfortunately, all the conjugations are still derived from 「<span title="よい - good" class="popup">よい</span>」 and not 「<span title="いい - good" class="popup">いい</span>」.  This is shown in the next table.

<p>
Another adjective that acts like this is
「<span title="かっこいい - good-looking, cool" class="popup">かっこいい</span>」 because it is an abbreviated version of two words merged together:
「<span title="かっこう - looks" class="popup">格好</span>」 and 「<span title="いい - good" class="popup">いい</span>」. Since it uses the same
「<span title="いい - good" class="popup">いい</span>」, you need to use the same conjugations.
</p>

<p />
<center>
<table border="0">
<tr>

<td>
<table border="1" cellpadding="5">
<caption>Conjugation for 「<span title="good" class="popup">いい</span>」</caption>
<tr align="center"><td></td><th>Positive</th><th>Negative</th></tr>
<tr align="center"><th>Non-Past</th><td><span title="いい - good" class="popup">いい</span></td><td><span title="いい - good" class="popup">よくない</span></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><th>Past</th><td><span title="いい - good" class="popup">よかった</span></td><td><span title="いい - good" class="popup">よくなかった</span></td></tr>
</table>
</td>

<td rowspan="2">
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
</td>

<td>
<table border="1" cellpadding="5">
<caption>Conjugation for 「<span title="かっこいい - good-looking, cool" class="popup">かっこいい</span>」</caption>
<tr align="center"><td></td><th>Positive</th><th>Negative</th></tr>
<tr align="center"><th>Non-Past</th><td><span title="かっこいい - good-looking, cool" class="popup">かっこいい</span></td><td><span title="かっこいい - good-looking, cool" class="popup">かっこよくない</span></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><th>Past</th><td><span title="かっこいい - good-looking, cool" class="popup">かっこよかった</span></td><td><span title="かっこいい - good-looking, cool" class="popup">かっこよくなかった</span></td></tr>
</table>
</td>

</tr>
</table>
</center>

<p>
Take care to make all the conjugations from 「<span title="よい - good" class="popup">よい</span>」 not 「<span title="いい - good" class="popup">いい</span>」.
</p>

<h3>Examples</h3>

<p>
（１）　<span title="ねだん - price" class="popup">値段</span>が<span title="あんまり - not very, not much (used only for negative)" class="popup">あんまり</span><span title="いい - good" class="popup"><em>よくない</em></span>。
<br />- Price isn't very good.
</p>

<p>
（２）　<span title="かれ - he; boyfriend" class="popup">彼</span>は<span title="かっこいい - good-looking, cool" class="popup"><em>かっこよかった</em></span>！
<br />- He looked really cool!
</p>


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<div class="small" style="text-align:right;"><pre>This page has last been revised on 2006/9/15</pre>
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